Cardsharing, a five-minute guide

[Dogsbelly]

I much enjoyed the replies to 'Cards, whats the score' and 'Feedhunters'. Any chance of a simular muse on cardsharing? I know its not a specific question but its handy having an overview of subjects sometimes.
Cheers
John

[Jimdefruit]

Hi Dogsbelly,

The 'I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours' scene is not really an open subject for this forum.

There are plenty of forums who are quite happy to delve into the world of file sharing and there is a fair bit of trouble developing, particularly on the music front.

However, if you have a couple or more dreamboxes or similar linux receivers you can happily share legit subscriptions between them within your own domain and through your own lan network.

[Dogsbelly]

"The 'I'll show you mine if you'll show me yours' scene is not really an open subject for this forum."

I was thinking of just a note on whats it all about not how to do it - but Its no problem.

Cheers
John

[Jimdefruit]

Thats ok John.

Its difficult to say what it is all about without going into the detailed workings.

On a simple note, with the right type of receiver, a Dreambox or similar linux box, it is possible for a card in one box to be read by both boxes. Also it is not restriced to two boxes but can be all boxes on a network.

[BGonaSTICK]

I've taken the liberty of re-naming this thread so that others may find it in the future

Jim’s right. It's the one topic that seems to get the troublemakers off their arses. And the satellite police.

I'm not going to talk specifics for that reason, and there's no point busting down my front door in the hope of putting me away because I don't use it. I understand the technology at the user level, and I could set it up if I wanted to, but it would only be for a test.

Networking is great, but networking is bad.

Let's just try and explain where I'm coming from with that.

You have some satellite kit. Maybe you're decoding something you shouldn't. Hey, that's just a small part of it for me. I could live without all that, and I'm not trying to push anyone down that road. FTA is great fun too.

But throw a network into the equation. Different ballgame.

I've worked for some of the largest corporations in the world, advising on architecture and strategy, and the power of the network is certainly not lost on me.

Fast reliable networking opens more doors than you can shake a stick at. More doors than can ever be closed by FACT, Sky or the world's governments.

The Internet is an all-powerful consciousness now. Not unstoppable, but what it has done is show the general public the power of networking, and the two things are not synonymous.

Cardsharing works by exchanging small but regular pieces of data between satellite users trying to view similarly encrypted data. One of the strangest things is that this has been done by actually passing those chunks of info not down land-locked phone lines between traditional ISPs, but ultimately through a satellite IP downlink itself!

You need to understand a little about Internet by satellite to figure just how ironic this is, but it illustrates my point nicely.

Now that's great. All Fine and Dandy.

Unfortunately, networks tend to have computers at each end. A few in between too. Computers which, in the case of cardsharing, are probably remote and outside of your control.

Aside from the fact that cardsharing also probably involves someone other than you, whom you have to trust implicitly, you have to share your very damning data trafficking reality with third parties who have no interest in protecting your privacy and security. Parties that would give up their logs at the mere wafting of a warrant.

Put simply, if you share data over a public network such as the Internet, then you will leave an indelible trail of evidence which could well be used against you.

Chances of getting caught? Probably very little, but there it is. Far higher than with no two-way hard-wired connection though.

As Jim so rightly says, even discussing the details of cardsharing can lead to big trouble for those involved, but I'll give you the basics.

Satellite signals come from above. The same signal for everyone, regardless of where you are. Some of those signals are encrypted. What does encrypted mean to us? Well, if you want chapter and verse, go to www.duwgati.com, but for the purposes of explaining this, here it is.

The satellite signal is encoded. It requires a valid card to decrypt. It's the job of the software in the receiver to periodically 'unlock' the satellite stream by exchanging small but regular amounts of data with the card. Without that 'chat', the next and subsequent chunks of video will stay black.

Cardsharing is clever. Rather than sharing the whole video signal between two people at opposite ends of the country, it just shares these authorisation exchanges.

For example, one chap in Land's End has a valid ART card in his receiver. Let’s say he's watching ART Sports 4 on 13E. His buddy lives in John o'Groats. He has a satellite setup too, but no card. His dish is also pointed at 13E, and his satellite receiver is tuned to ART Sports 4.

ART on Hotbird is encrypted with Viaccess 2.5 which is secure at the moment. There is no way that John o'Groats can watch this without a valid card. Land's End has one though, so he simply connects the card to John's receiver via the Internet. Job done.

Both parties are receiving the main video stream directly from the satellite, and both are exchanging those little bits of information with the one card in Land's End. The card doesn't understand that it's working twice as hard. It could probably support 10 or more 'clients'.

All of this is not possible without some computer jiggery-pokery going on between the two receivers. The one with the card is known as the server, and the one (or more) without is the client. It works much like any other client/server relationship. In fact it's not the receiver; it’s the software running on it.

The requirements to be able to do this are that your receiver has to have some sort of networking capability, you have to be able to load it with the extra software required to maintain this real-time transaction dialogue, the software has to be available and support the cards you're using and normally you would have to contribute a card as well.

How does that work? Well, much like the so-called peer-to-peer networking systems like Kazaa, each receiver is effectively both a client of other servers and a server to other clients simultaneously. Beautiful. I love the peer-to peer concept. If only we could find a truly ‘good’ use to put it to rather than just sharing dodgy data!

Some cards can support more client connections that others. It depends on many things - speed of the chip on the card, how much data is exchanged, how often it's exchanged etc, but in general, it works.

HTH

[Dogsbelly]

Bloody Hell !!

That's exactly what a newbie needs to hear - 1 .. what are the options. 2 ..Do I / Don't I want to commit my spare time to grab a bit of this.

For me...No - But my choice is at least now better informed.

Naturally I shall be sueing Stick for Zillions for the highjack of my carefully-crafted 'Subject' if I can remember what is was!

Great Post - appreciated John

[Dogsbelly]

I haven't got the sort of brain that lights up when it sees a long string of noughts & ones but I can appreciate the irony of using the satellite to hack the satellite. For those that can it must be irresistible - unless it is at a commercial level the fines for those that have done audio hacks seem out-of-order. I hope talented amateurs don't get stuffed for satellite in the same way but expect to be disappointed

[Dogsbelly]

"A five-minute guide" . Emm... looks seriously trick. A nice way to present subjects with a eye-catching handle. At the risk of being flamed would a rework of 'Cards.whats the score' & 'Feedhunters' be on the cards?
Cheers
John

[BGonaSTICK]

LOL, if I knew what I was talking about, I'd write a FAQ